Well, "horses for courses" or "non disputandum de gustibus" etc..
Certainly, there folks for whom scrounging and improvising are part of the
appeal (that would be me!), but there are probably equally as many for whom
spending dozens of precious leisure hours would be prohibitive. I'm trying to
"bound the tradespace". Some hams are cheap and scroungers, others have
significant time commitments, but larger cash resources. $10K sounds like a
big pile of money (to me, anyway), but compared to a $30K swimming pool, maybe
not. Consider the demographics. You might have a technically sophisticated
wanna be ham who makes $100K/yr in the .com industry, but doesn't have hours to
spend at hamfests or scotchbriting the joints between sections. For them, if
they're interested in fooling with ham radio, it might be a good trade to just
buy the tower and pay someone to put it up. Hey, if you're Paul Allen, you can
put up your own OSCAR if the mood strikes.
As several of the posters have pointed out, one can put up a better
configuration for substantially less cash (but at a substantial outlay of time
and effort and luck). I'm sure you can also spend a whole lot more, and
achieve less.
And, yes, of course, one can have a perfectly good time with a wire over a
tree, however, I was trying to describe a sort of middle of the road
(capability wise, not necessarily the average ham's) station in a suburban
area. Not a multi-monoband DX contest killer, nor a random wire fed by a tuner.
----- Original Message -----
From: Tom Horton
To: Bill Coleman ; Jim Lux
Cc: TowerTalk
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 9:39 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] ballpark costs for a tower (installed)
Bill said
"If you write an article saying that even a modest tower will cost $3-7
large ones, there's a lot of would-be tower builders out there who may
likely give up the hobby."
Bill,
Boy, do I agree with you.
If putting out that many large for a tower and antenna
was the norm for most of us, I fear that most of us
would not be on the air !
Hams used to be cheap and scroungers...what has happened to us?
My tower is a few old sections of 25G and just scrounged 1
or possibly 2 more today. My quad has been moved and rebuilt
a bunch of times and it's getting ready to be rebuilt and installed
again here in TX (where it got started).
No wonder a lot of folks think ham radio is a rich man's hobby.
Doesn't have to be if you are resourceful enough!
73, tom K5IID
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Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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